Tag Archives: heroines

One there was a…
And one day …
And because of this…
And she realized…
And she decided…
And ever since then…

A few months ago at a professional conference (for Child Llife Specialists) one session was about therapeutic uses of transformation narratives. Pairing “journey” stories with children to help mirror the life-changing events related to medical conditions, hospitalization, and loss.

While the potential for that population is powerful, the implications for each of us is what struck me deeply. The universality of the story prompt is amazing in it’s simplicity and complexity. It is the heart of stories across cultures and time. Encountering things and coming out the other side somehow changed and different. When I came home from the conference, I read the NY Times article This Is Your Life (and How You Tell It). For months, these ideas hung and percolated in my mind.

A few months later, I sat on a cross country flight, the words of StoryCorps and Moth podcasts drowning out the noisy plane. I was again moved by the power of story, the stories embedded in everyday life. I wondered, have I had amazing transformative events? What are my stories?